A lot of this game just feels one foot forward, two steps back with design.

Enemies are better at fighting in general, which is really cool! On the other hand, that's led to bosses getting free dodges and blocks, oh and incredibly rapid healing that you need to be prepped for to stop.

Substories are high, but they're all less clever, funny, or unique as the ones in 0. Minigames are all repeated, with the one given the long questline be the cat fighting over the motor cars.

The one place this game did great at though is story. Playing 0 is a must.

I tried to start this game three times and failed, the fourth finally stuck. I'll admit, it took at least ten hours for me to really start enjoying this game. Before then I was just staying with it because I told myself I would. Something clicked though, the characters, the setting, the combat, the minigames, it all started clicking together. Embracing the absurdity and just spending a night of gaming racing cars, betting on cat fights, or managing a cabaret were as fun as the nights I did story content.

Highly recommend trying this.